IRVINE : Soph Career Direction Plan Tested

Hoping to give career direction to students not headed to a four-year university, the city’s high schools are testing the Focus Program, under which sophomores declare a major.

University-bound students still take the standard mix of college preparatory classes in their junior and senior years. But those who expect to go to work right after graduation are guided into one of several “focus major” areas, which vary from computer technology to nursing.

“This is an attempt to give kids who are not chasing the four-year college thing an emphasis in a particular technical or training area instead of taking just a hodgepodge of classes,” said Woodbridge High School Principal Greg Cops.

At Woodbridge, one of three high schools in the Irvine Unified School District, 35% of the graduating seniors are not seeking a four-year college degree, he said.

The school district is working to coordinate the program with Irvine Valley College, so juniors and seniors can take community college level classes and earn credit toward two-year training certificates. “This can be a kind of hook to bring them into community colleges,” Cops said, “so they don’t get lost when they graduate from high school.”

Veteran school board member Margie Wakeham said the program arose from concerns that high school students who are not college-bound may not be prepared to enter the work force.

“The biggest deficiency in the school system has been the belief that every child will go on to a four-year school,” said Wakeham, who is also an eight-year board member of the Coastline Regional Occupation Program, which offers career training to high school-age students. “We know that’s not true.”

Even those who do plan to attend four-year colleges will benefit from the program, Wakeham said, through exposure to a variety of career options while still in high school.

“A lot of kids who go on to college are not well prepared in making a career choice,” she said. “It’s important for kids to think about what their future should be and not just go from one class to another.”